The Dirty Girls Social Club

By Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

It's not really a club. It's just a group of women who became friends in college and still keep in touch even though they no longer live near each other.
Lauren writes a column about her ordinary life for a Boston newspaper. She has a boyfriend, but she suspects he is unfaithful. She is bulimic and tends to drink too much.
Usnavys is successful and self-employed and loves the finer things in life. Her serious boyfriend is the opposite and never seems to have two pennies to rub together.
Sara is the devoted wife and mother but seems unable to accept the truth about her husband, an abusive brute who ends up putting her in the hospital and causing her to lose her unborn baby.
Rebecca is the successful owner of a magazine for women. She is also unhappily married when a handsome and available new man enters her life.
Together they are the dirty girls and together they help each other cope with the ups and downs of just being alive.

This was an OK read. Kind of boring at times. Predictable too.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Playing With Boys

By Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Sometimes things just come together. It did for Alexis when she met two strangers. One was an unemployed actress and the other was a writer with a story that needed to be told. And Alexis was just the one who could bring these two together and change all three of their lives for the better.
The actress, Marcella, is beautiful, talented but has been stuck playing the hot Latina rolls. Rolls she is getting too old for and that no longer appeal to her.
The writer, Olivia, needs to tell the story of her father's murder by the Salvadoran death squads. But she is a beginner writer and Alexis is just the professional she needs to bring her vision to the world.
As for Alexis, she manages a Mexican pop band and she is itching to start her own management company and Marcella and Olivia are just the people she needs to stretch her wings. Together, the skies the limit.

This was a pretty good read. Alexis is the main character, and she has the typical romance novel love story where the girl is involved with the wrong guy and that guy treats her badly and then she finds a new guy but the new guy is either taken or oblivious but eventually he wakes up and discovers his true feelings for the girl. The usual.

Review from Kirkus Reviews.